The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1991-1992

Detection of Teratogens by Utilization of β-gal Reporter Gene Activity

Nicole Bournias-Vardiabasis, PhD
California State University, San Bernardino, California

Dr. Bournias-Vardiabasis is working to develop and rapid a reliable assay that examines the effects of teratogens on the developing fetus. She will attempt to create an assay that will discriminate between the effects of teratogenic versus non-teratogenic agents on human cells. The preliminary work has been done using Drosphilia embryonic cells and consists of a system which allows her to assess stress by the easily detectable expression of a reporter gene linked to a promoter of a stress-inducible gene. This work could provide a means to determine the status of the fetus in terms of teratogen-induced developmental abnormalities and eventually lead to prevention of the majority of teratogen-induced birth defects.